Men’s Soccer Through To CACC Final After 4-1 Win Over Georgian Court

Bridgeport, Conn. – The University of Bridgeport men's soccer team defeated the Georgian Court University Lions in Friday evening's CACC semifinal 4-1. The Purple knights outshot the Lions 16-6 and doubled their shots on target, eight to Georgian Court's four. The win improves UB's season record to 10-6-3 overall.

The Lions started the hotter of the two teams, however the Purple Knights would bend but not break and absorb the pressure.

The breakthrough came in the 32^nd minute after Andrea Soliani (Grad., Piacenza, Italy) played a cross towards the back post where Lapo Romieri (Fr., Milan, Italy) was waiting. Romieri hit the ball first time towards the left side of the goal, but an instinctive Maximilian Kissel (So., Wiesbaden, Germany) poked the ball into the back of the Lions goal to give UB a 1-0 lead.

The Purple Knights would take that slim 1-0 lead into the halftime break.

On the other side of halftime, Georgian Court once again started well but was not able to materialize a goal for their efforts.

Bridgeport would double their lead in the 56^th minute after an Alex Tan (Sr., Vichy, France) shot was saved by the Lions' keeper but Josef Preci (Grad., Savona, Italy) latched on to rebound, hitting it home from about 12 yards to give UB the 2-0 lead.

Just 40 seconds later the Purple Knights would find a third goal, this time Lapo Romieri would get on the end of a sly reverse pass within the penalty area from Lucas Mah (So., Basel, Switzerland) and place his shot between two Georgian Court defenders and into the back of the net for his fourth goal of the season.

Maximilian Kissel would score his second goal of the night, after Alex Tan played a ball over the left side of the Georgian Court backline. Kissel got to the bouncing ball with the keeper in no man's land and lobbed it, off the left post and over the line to make it 4-0 UB. Maximilian's goal puts him up to 23 on the year and an average of 1.21 goals per game. Both stat lines lead all of NCAA DII men's soccer.

Georgian Court would get a late consolation goal when in the 90^th minute, Maurice Engl took a perfectly placed, first time finish off a pass from Sam Thombs to find the bottom right corner. This was too little too late and UB would walk out 4-1 victors over the Lions.

Up next, UB will take on the No. 11 nationally ranked and number one seed Post University Eagles on Sunday, November 12^th at 2:00 p.m. in the 2023 CACC Men's Soccer Final on Knights Field.